Fame & Fortune

At a certain point in Hollywood history, most of the major studios Warner Bros., Universal, MGM, Paramount, and 20^th Century Fox were at the precipice of bankruptcy.

Aaaah, the fame and fortune. Fame, yes…fortune, not as much. In fact, 20^th Century became so broke one year (shortly before “Star Wars”) that it actually rented lot space to porn productions. Yep, the same stages used to do big Cinemascope musicals with Jane Russell & Marilyn Monroe, were just for fresh debutantes from, apparently Dallas getting reamed. They had no issue with revenue.

So it goes without saying, we are the business of illusion. I would say, up until and after VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray sales, movies (specifically theatrical releases) are the biggest gamble studios take. In my own business of post production I’ve been told our company sometimes loses money when feature films come through, as we deal with flat rates and crew constantly go into overtime. That overhead costs always eat into the flat rate given. Most post houses will attempt to outbid each other for the project. Eventually, the studios/production will settle on cheap, but not incompetent. In my mind, that just tells me that movies continue to lose money for studios. The biggest sign of these funny money tactics were when you started to see mergers between television and studios (Universal/NBC). Or, in the case of Sony, that’s straight up product running studio. Remember when you saw Coca-Cola under the Columbia logo? That was weird. In the old days, studios just got t.v. money to finance shows they’d air. Now it’s more of a direct pipeline.

In the case of feature films in theaters, studios find creative ways to dodge that pesky monopoly (you can’t own the origination of shooting and the theater, otherwise you could drive up the price of movie tickets and only show your own movies…as if we’re forced to go to the movies). They are allowed to own a few though. Universal has it’s thing going on their own theme park.

You know, when DVD and those other ancillary markets started to dwindle, the studios freaked the fuck out. What was their new outlet? Well, with the internet, they streamed their material. I wouldn’t be surprised now if there were mergers between studios and say…Amazon or Netflix. They have individual by contract series they pay studios to produce, but they haven’t officially merged…yet.

And thus, because people follow the money, very little is spent in movie theater type material and more on an original series online. Why not? The per theater revenue is miniscule with a larger overhead than say…paying a nominal fee to a cable provider to up-sell streaming rates (practically given for free now) so that they can watch television at home. That theater experience is shifting. But the theater closest to my house, has recently upgraded to leather-ish reclining La-Z-Boy style seating with fresh popcorn and real butter. Well calibrated projectors and Atmos Dolby sound. All to wrangle us back to the theater. It’s a little too late. In fact, the other theater I go to are subsidizing the slow days on Tuesday with revival (what amounts) DVD watching. They’re re-showing “Blade Runner,” “Top Gun,” “Unforgiven” and so forth. Had it been film print projection, I’d go see it in a heartbeat. Nope. Blu-Ray discs most likely.

As it is, you’re paying theater prices to watch what amounts to your own t.v. BUT, I do get the angle. You’re also “renting” out theater space to watch your favorite classics with people of like mind on the “big screen.” In essence, believing the experience is answer. And I actually believe it. What I wouldn’t do to go back in time and experience “Mannequinn” (1987) again with complete strangers in the dark.